Deutsch Donny - Often Wrong, Never in Doubt

W hy not me? You cant just say it, youve got to own it.

In order to pitch $10-million accounts, youve got to say, We should be pitching. Whos going to get that $10-million account? Why not me? Why stop at $10 million? Or $100-million accounts? Why not me? Whenever I say those words to people, they laugh. They hear their own wheels turning, they realize how far they are from acting on that kind of question, and they laugh.

Howd I figure this out? Richie Kirshenbaum taught me without even knowing it.

Richie Kirshenbaum was the first guy I ever hired. He was maybe six months out of Syracuse University, working for a small agency called Korey Kay & Partners. If I was thirty he was twenty-six, a clever, funny, fast-talking guy. He had a lot of fun headlines in his book, so I hired him.

We got along great. I was the main front guy; Richie did a lot of the writing. It seemed to be working.

After two years David Deutsch Associates was starting to make some inroads. We werent seen as one of the hot shops, the sexy, bigger-name creative agencies like Chiat/Day or Ammirati Puris. We didnt have a lot of notoriety; we were this little boutique print house that had been around for fifteen years that was making more noise than we used to. We were a small, high-end creative shop and we were known as a small, high-end creative shop.

Richie could have been a Borscht Belt comedian. He was great with one-liners, a fast-talking storyteller not unlike early Woody Allen. A typical neurotic, self-deprecating Long Island Jewish guy. I thought of him as my protg, my sidekick, and we had a lot of fun together. When, after two years, he left to go work at J. Walter Thompson, I understood. He was going to a bigger place, more money, more responsibility. Time to move on. No big deal. We remained friends.

About six months later I heard that Richie was going to start his own agency with some guy Id never heard of. I laughed and dismissed it. Boy, hes certainly not equipped to start an ad agency. Lot of balls, that kid. Oh yeah, I said to myself, thatll last a week.

The first campaign they did was for Kenneth Cole shoes. Very controversial, political ads. Not about shoes at all; about the attitude behind the shoes. It was an immediate hit. They did a couple more controversial campaigns. In those days everyone read Bernice Kanners advertising column in New York magazine. One week Kanner wrote a two-page spread about how Richie Kirshenbaum was running the agency of the moment. Here was this little pischer, a couple of months into it, hed done a few nifty ads and positioned himself, and he had the hot agency!

I got insanely jealous.

That lasted about a minute. Then my jealousy turned to Ah ha! Wait a second, I figured; heres a guy who I actually know. Richie and I have worked side by side. I think Im smarter than this guy. I think Im a harder worker. I think Ive got a bigger set of balls. I lived with this guy for two years; now Im reading about him. Whats wrong with this picture? How did this happen? Whats Richie got that I havent got thats making him so hot?

No bells started flashing, no lightbulb went on over my head, but it didnt take long for me to figure it out. Richie had a fully developed sense of entitlement. Hed clearly said to himself, Why shouldnt I have the next hot agency? Richie was looking to make his mark on the world. His answer was, I should.

What hit me was that Richie went into his new company saying, Were going to be the next hot agency, and worked back from there. What do I have to do? Hed figured, If I want a hot agency, Ive got to do a specific type of work that not only pleases the client but is also going to get a certain kind of attention.

Me? I wasnt even dreaming that David Deutsch Associates would get written up in New York. We had been grinding all along but never thought it was possible. Million-dollar clients? Out of our league. If someone had asked me, Why shouldnt you have the next hot agency? Id have had every answer in the world except the right one. Richie Kirshenbaum showed me I was wrong. Why couldnt we do work like I was reading about? That could be us. That should be us. We could pitch anybody. But first we had to own it. If we wanted to be written about, wed first have to create the kind of ads that garner attention. Why not me? From then on I started to do ads that would make waves.

It also didnt hurt that I now had someone driving me crazy. Its good, in business, to have someone to shoot at, someone you want to knock off his pedestal. Makes it personal. I didnt hate RichieI actually had a lot of affection for himbut I hated his success; we were still bigger, but he was the agency of the moment, the agency du jour. He had no business getting the kind of attention that was coming at him. I used that as a tool. My guiding principle became: Why Not Me?

U nless youre an exceptional human being from the get-gowhich most people, including myself, are notour entire social system is basically about putting people in boxes. School, in particular, should be educating children to their possibilities but instead serves just to standardize them. For my whole academic career, my behavior was unsatisfactory, and my self-control was unsatisfactory because I had a creative mind and it wandered. Dreams are vitalall I did was daydreambut I got penalized for mine. The world is littered with people whove been shoved back into boxes and didnt have the personal firepower to fight their way out. Maybe some kids in fourth grade are told, Youre exceptionalmaybe their parents tell them constantly, which can add a whole other set of problemsbut most are told to know their place. My parents knew I was bright and had leadership qualities. They had no clue as to my creativity.

When asked, I tell people to find their place. I dont have children, but if I did, I wouldnt tell them, You can be president of the United States. Id tell them, Follow your dream. Youre entitled to your dream. If your dream is to be president of the United States, then why not you?

Inside all of us, somewhere, is a dream. But no one is going to tap you on the shoulder, pluck you out of the chorus, and make you a star. First youve got to make the conscious decision to pursue that dream. Youve got to put it in Drive. Want to be a chef? An investment banker? What do you have to do to get there? Whats the first step? Take it!

The older you become, the more your dreams get rationalized, the more you come to terms with your compromises; you know the corners youve cut better than anybody. In a Jewish family, what are we brought up to want to be? Doctor, lawyer. Make a good living. Its a pretty narrow box. We werent brought up to be president or a movie star, or to cure cancer. Most people want to pleaseour parents, our teachers, our clergymenso rather than pursuing our own dreams, we follow a compendium of theirs. That rarely works. The happiest people are the ones who follow their own dreams most closely. The day your dream dies, a little part of you dies. And all of us want to live forever.

Pick your own dream. There are 20,000 advertising copywriters in New York City right now. If I polled them, Im absolutely positive that 19,990 would say they deserve to be a creative director. Im working for them, Im smarter than they are, I do all the work Every one of them. But until they say, I should have that job, if not here, someplace elseand heres why, theyll stay at their desks and begrudgingly meet their deadlines.